


Daisy and Phil Fight Crime

by Persiflage



Series: Johnson & Coulson Exchange 2k17 [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Daisy Is The Only Marvel Superhero, Episode Related, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fingerfucking, First Kiss, First Time, Hand Jobs, Inhumans (Marvel), Johnson & Coulson Exchange 2k17, Nightmares, Older Man/Younger Woman, POV Skye | Daisy Johnson, Sharing a Bed, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Watchdogs (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:36:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9162313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: An AU take on the first part of S4 of AoS.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Johnson & Coulson Exchange, the prompt was _Phil and Daisy run away together. They also fight crime together, much to the dismay of new SHIELD. THAT’S NOT ALL THEY DO TOGETHER THOUGH, or maybe that’s what they both eventually want to believe will happen._
> 
> Some dialogue is borrowed from 4:04.

"They're an embarrassment," Director Mace says angrily, and May raises a quizzical eyebrow at him, before glancing sideways at Agent Simmons.

"The Director feels that former Agent Johnson and former Director Coulson are embarrassing us politically because they are proving more successful in taking down Watchdogs and others of a similar ilk when SHIELD has been having less success in this matter, despite having greater resources," Simmons says.

"Wait," May says disbelievingly. "You're pissed off at Daisy and Coulson because they're doing a better job than we are with only two people, a van, and whatever funds Daisy boosted from Hive's and Gideon Malick's bank accounts?"

Mace nods. "Precisely."

May considers Mace in a thoughtful silence. Coulson had been adamant that he had to step down so that SHIELD could be legitimised again, particularly after the business in Russia with Agents Morse and Hunter which had so pissed off the President. Coulson had been equally adamant that SHIELD should have an actual Inhuman as the Director so that once it finally came out of the shadows again, SHIELD would be better placed to help the Inhumans, particularly with the advent of the Sokovia Accords. 

May hadn't expected that having stepped down as Director, Coulson would not only go off after Daisy – who'd left once she'd recovered enough from what Hive had done to her to be fit for fieldwork again – but actually team up with her, but she'd be first to admit she also hadn't anticipated Daisy leaving like that, either. The two of them had taken her entirely by surprise, and it annoyed her that they'd wrong-footed her in such a way, but she also knew that Daisy was the best person to both help Inhumans, and to stop the Watchdogs and other similar hate groups.

"So what are you saying?" she asks Mace, then looks at Simmons, since she seems to be the Director's anointed mouthpiece today.

"We need to bring them in," Mace tells her. "You'll be leading the team to capture them."

May raises both eyebrows. "How do you plan on finding them?" she asks. "Because so far we've had zero luck in that. You must know we're usually at least an hour behind them whenever we do find out where they are – and we often miss them by more than an hour."

"Dr Winslow," Simmons says. "We know that Daisy has been visiting his clinic at least once a month since she left the team – and it's nearly a month since her last visit."

"We did think of staking out the Hinton widow's place," Mace tells her, and May feels her muscles tighten and her heart rate increase at the mere idea of pulling such a move – neither Daisy nor Coulson would _ever_ forgive SHIELD, or May herself, for doing such a thing.

"However, we decided it would be unfair to Mrs Hinton, and possibly upsetting to her daughter, so we decided it would be better to stake out Dr Winslow's clinic instead," Simmons told her.

"I'm glad you saw the wisdom in not using Mrs Hinton and her daughter in such a fashion," May says in a biting tone that makes Simmons flinch, and Mace frown. "How big a team are you proposing that I take on this stakeout?"

"As many as you feel are necessary," Mace says immediately. "Obviously we don't expect you to use lethal force, but your team should go armed with ICERs since former Agent Johnson is herself permanently armed."

May bites her tongue to stop the sharp retort that leaps to mind. She's fought against Daisy when she was using her powers, and she knows that Daisy's very capable of combining the use of her powers with her hand-to-hand combat skills. But she also knows Daisy doesn't need her powers to fight well. Coulson, of course, doesn't have any powers, but he does have decades of field work experience to draw on, and a nearly unstoppable arm.

"I'll take 6 agents with me," she says finally. She's certain in her own mind that this is an extremely bad idea, but she's also aware that disobeying a direct order could – probably would – cost her her job, and she needs to stay in SHIELD, if only because she's the only person in this new version of SHIELD with her level of field experience. If she left, they'd make an even bigger mess of things, and she doesn't want that on her conscience.

"Good, good," Mace says in a cheerful tone that makes May want to punch him. Instead she gives him and Simmons a curt nod, then marches out to collect together her team: the sooner they head up to Wisconsin, the better.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

"Uh oh."

"What is it?" asks Phil anxiously as he comes through the door.

"Seems Director Mace has noticed I've been visiting Cal – Dr Winslow," she says, looking up from her laptop as Phil crosses the room, carrying two mugs of coffee.

"Oh?" 

"May and a small team of agents just left the Playground in a Quinjet, and their scheduled flight plan has them heading for Wisconsin."

Phil clicks his tongue. "I can't imagine May's terribly enamoured of that idea." He sets the mugs down on the coffee table in front of the couch where Daisy's sitting crosslegged working.

"I imagine the Director's first idea was to stake out the Hintons' home," she observes. "Fortunately wiser heads prevailed. Probably Jemma Simmons talked him out of that tactic." She snorts. "Just as well, or he'd have spent a long time regretting that choice."

"So what's your plan?" Phil asks, leaning his shoulder against hers as he peers down at the laptop screen.

"Well, I won't be going to Wisconsin tomorrow, for a start." She types faster, then chuckles rather mirthlessly. "How does a trip to Florida sound, Phil?"

"Good," he says with a cheerful grin.

"Then that's where we'll head." She stops typing and clicks on something. "I've just sent Cal – Dr Winslow – an email telling him not to expect us for at least a week. That will stop him worrying – and Polly, too – when we don't show up tomorrow."

Phil nods, then picks up his coffee and drinks. "So what's in Florida?" he asks. "Watchdogs or Inhumans?"

"Both," Daisy tells him. "There's a very vocal chapter of Watchdogs out there who've been stirring up a lot of hate, and there's an underground report of a couple of relatively newly transformed Inhumans – two young women, sisters I think, a few years younger than me."

He nods, then watches her as she continues typing – triangulating the location details for the various members of the Florida Watchdogs chapter. "When we don't show up in Wisconsin, do you think May will realise you're hacking SHIELD?"

"To be honest, someone ought to have figured it out already," she tells him, not looking up as she reaches for her coffee. He puts the mug into her hand, and she murmurs a thank you, then takes a mouthful before continuing. "But then, Fitz is off with Dr Radcliffe a lot of the time – and unless I'm very much mistaken, Radcliffe's up to no good."

"Oh?" 

"Mmm. Looking at his purchases over the last 3 months since SHIELD let him loose post-Hive, he's probably building an android – he's buying from the same company that Tony Stark used for Ultron – the bits Stark didn't build himself, that is."

"Ouch." 

"Yeah. SHIELD ought to be all over that, but as far as I can tell, Fitz is the only one who's having any regular contact with Radcliffe – and I suspect he's been sucked into whatever Radcliffe's doing. Simmons visited the lab a few times in the early days, but she seems to be spending her time with Mace, when she's not apartment hunting."

"She and Fitz are moving in together?" he asks, and Daisy looks up.

"I imagine so, from the specs of the apartments she's been looking at. Why?"

"We might be able to use that if we need to make contact with her."

"Mmm. To be honest, if I'm gonna make contact with anyone still inside SHIELD, I'd prefer it to be Mack – or May."

"It's your call," he tells her, and she nods. 

He always tells her that. At first, when they initially began working together outside of SHIELD, it had annoyed her – she'd thought it was his well-meaning attempt to make her feel better because she was still suffering withdrawals after Andrew had severed her connection to Hive's Sway. Then she'd realised she was doing Phil an injustice – he considered her the leader of their two-person team: he'd assured her that this was her fight, and he was just there for backup and support of whatever kind she needed – medical, comms, transport, a mild-mannered face, physical, or even emotional. They'd started sleeping together in the same bed because her post-Hive nightmares were less intense with him in the bed beside her. So far they were only sharing a bed, but she had a feeling Phil wouldn't be averse to more than simply sleeping in the same bed – she just hadn't figured out a way to bring that up yet.

Daisy finishes up her task, then says, "I'm going to grab a few hours sleep before we set out. You don't mind if we drive all night to get to Florida?"

"So long as you let me share the driving," he tells her, and she nods.

"Deal."

"Will you be okay, sleeping on your own I mean? I was going to go out and get some supplies – food and medical."

"I should be fine," she says, and he nods.

"Okay. I'll take your van, if that's okay?"

"Phil, I keep telling you, you don't have to ask. I know we need to keep Lola under wraps for the most part – she's far too distinctive, even with fake plates."

She fishes her keys from her pocket and puts them into his hand, and he nods, then heads out, and Daisy collects their empty coffee mugs and carries them through to the kitchen. She grabs a bottle of water, then heads upstairs to the master bedroom.

She strips off, then tugs on sweatpants and a t-shirt, before crawling into bed. She's been keeping such irregular hours since she walked away from SHIELD that she can fall asleep easily no matter what time of day or night she goes to bed, and within five minutes of pulling the comforter over her head to block out the light, she's sound asleep.

She comes awake abruptly at dusk, flailing wildly against her nightmare attackers, and then Phil's hand is on her shoulder, saying her name over and over, and she's reminded, abruptly, of that time she pulled him out of Raina's machine.

"Fuck," she mutters, then squints up at Phil. "I didn't hit you, did I?"

He switches on the lamp on the nightstand. "No, Daisy, you didn't hit me."

"Oh good." She rolls onto her back and scrubs her hand over her face. "Shit."

"Want some water?" he asks, perching on the side of the bed by her knees.

"No, thanks."

He wraps his prosthetic hand around her knee. "Want a cuddle instead?"

"Yeah," she sighs, and he gestures for her to move over, then climbs onto the bed beside her and slides his arms around her,

"Better?" he asks after a few minutes. She's lying facing him, but her eyes are closed as she sorts through the images from her nightmare.

"Much, thank you."

"Any time, Daisy, you know that."

He briefly presses his lips to her forehead, and she opens her eyes, looks at his eyes – so full of love and concern for her, as they always are, and before she can consider the wisdom of the impulse, she leans in and kisses him. It's a very deliberate, unambiguous gesture, and she cups his ass at the same time, just to emphasise the point she's making.

"Oh God, Daisy," he moans, then kisses her back, rather more forcefully. 

He's every bit as good a kisser as she'd always imagined (yes, she's imagined kissing her former boss, so sue her), and she feels a rising tide of arousal surging through her body and his vibrations simultaneously.

"Phil," she moans, and brings her hand around, over his hip, to cup his burgeoning erection through the slacks he's wearing.

"Yes, Daisy. Yes." He's breathy with desire, and she feels a throb between her thighs. She grabs his hand and guides it to the waistband of her sweatpants.

"Phil, please," she begs, and he immediately slips his hand inside her pants and cups her mound, the heel of his hand resting just above her slit. She moans more loudly when he pushes his middle finger into her, and he echoes her moan when he finds she's already wet. 

"Good boy," she praises him, and he moans loudly, a reaction she files away for later consideration – right now she's too busy sinking into the mattress as he fingers her, pushing a second finger into her slick heat alongside the first. He moves his fingers faster, driving them deeper into her, and she gasps and moans, then feels her hips and back arch up from the bed as an orgasm hits her. She's vaguely aware of a rattling noise in the background, but she's too busy coming to really process it.

He fingers her through the aftershocks, then eases his hand free of her body, and she opens her eyes in time to see him sucking his fingers clean, which she's surprised to discover she finds very sexy. She reaches for his cock, and he clasps her wrist. 

"I don't have any condoms," he says.

She raises an eyebrow, then nods. "So, handjob or blowjob?" His eyes go wide, and she wonders if he thought she wasn't going to return the favour.

"Handjob," he says with a blush, which intrigues her.

"Why're you blushing Phil?"

He closes his eyes a moment as she unfastens his pants, then curls her hand around his dick. "I really, really like your hands," he says fervently, staring at her.

"Huh. I didn't know that."

"Well, no. I tried to keep it to myself."

She smirks, then leans in and kisses him, open-mouthed and dirty. "Now you don't need to," she tells him.

He tugs at his shirt, and she realises he's trying to take it off, so she gives his dick a brief squeeze, then helps him to sit up and pull off his polo shirt, before she gets him settled against the pillows. She begins kissing him again, slow and easy, with lots of tongue, and he moans into her mouth, then again more loudly when she begins stroking his cock.

"Daisy. Daisy. Oh God! Daisy." His moans are getting louder and more desperate-sounding as she works her hand up and down him faster, flicking her thumb over the head with every pass. She shifts so that her wet sex is pressing against his thigh, her right leg draped over his legs, and he grunts, and she feels his orgasm moments before he actually comes. It's an amazing sensation, and she can hardly wait to discover what it feels like to feel his orgasm before it hits him while he's actually inside her fucking her.

"Fuck," he gasps as she eases him back down from his climax before finally releasing his softening dick.

"Okay?" she asks, looking at the sticky mess on his chest.

"Mmm, yes," he says, sounding very happy.

"Good."

"I need a shower."

"Me too, but you go first."

He nods. "I made us some sandwiches for the road, bought some pastries as well. Anything else you want to eat before we leave?"

"Did you bring powdered donuts or glazed?"

He smirks as he slides off the bed, then ditches his pants and boxers. "Both, actually."

"Then we're good to go as soon as we throw some clothes in a bag."

He nods, then disappears out of the bedroom and into the adjacent bathroom. Daisy can't help admiring his ass as he walks away, then smirks at the thought that taking the next step in their relationship had been pretty easy after all.

She grabs her bag from the bottom of the closet and starts to pack clothes, toiletries, and hair care products. She puts her field suit and gauntlets in on the top, and reflects for a moment on how grateful she'd been when Phil had managed to retrieve the suit and gauntlets for her from SHIELD before he'd finally thrown in the towel with them to join her.

He comes out of the bathroom wearing only a towel, and with drips of water running down his chest and arms as he towels his hair dry, and she feels a wave of lust rush through her. She licks her lips involuntarily, and he raises an eyebrow at her, as if he knows exactly what she's thinking. She ducks her head, then moves around the end of the bed and heads to the bathroom herself.

"Hey," he says, dropping the towel from his head to lie around his neck as he reaches out to clasp her shoulders. "I don't regret the sex, okay?" He squeezes her shoulders carefully. "In case you were worrying about that."

"I wasn't," she says, "but thank you for telling me."

He nods, gives her a quick peck on the lips, then steps past her towards his discarded clothes, and she forces herself to go into the bathroom for her shower. She'd far rather tumble him onto the bed and have wildly energetic sex with him, but she has an actual job to do, so that kind of self indulgence will have to wait.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

They drive all night, taking it in turns behind the wheel of Daisy's van, and pausing for bathroom breaks and fresh coffee along the way. Her new van is a step up from the one she'd owned when Phil had picked her up in that LA alley: there's a better quality mattress in the back (she'd slept in the van most nights during the first month after she walked away from SHIELD), with actual pillows as well as a very good quality sleeping bag. And the tech she's got installed, since this is her mobile HQ, is more expensive, and has better capacity too.

She doesn't feel any nostalgia for that first month post-SHIELD though – it had been a painful sort of experience, as she was still struggling with her withdrawals from Hive's Sway, as well as both her grief and guilt over the deaths of Andrew and Lincoln, and there had been nights where she'd barely slept because of the nightmares. 

When Phil had caught up with her and asked to join her mission, instead of taking her in to SHIELD or turning her over to one of the other many agencies that was chasing her, she'd been torn between annoyance at his arrival (she'd told herself she wanted nothing to lose, and having Phil helping her meant having something to lose), and relief at the thought of someone having her back, someone to whom she could talk without needing to keep secrets. The fact that he'd rolled up in Lola, bringing her Twizzlers, Little Debbie snack cakes, powdered donuts, her favourite coffee, and a container of his home-made tomato and basil soup – in addition to her field suit and gauntlets, and some bone medication that he said would help her with the micro fractures she'd been giving herself through overuse of her powers without the gauntlets to help – had been a definite bonus, but making the decision to accept his help still hadn't been easy. 

Now she's grateful for him on a daily basis – even without the new bonus of having sex with the man she loves (and has fancied since the beginning) – he helps her to get through each day, and he makes her job as 'Quake the vigilante' so much easier, and having him around for backup and support has meant she's been able to shut down more chapters of the Watchdogs, and rescue more Inhumans, than she'd have managed if she'd still been working solo.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

Their trip to Florida is mostly successful – Daisy manages to locate the two Inhumans, sisters as she'd thought, and send them off to safety: Elena and Joey are running a top secret facility in Mexico, which Daisy's funding via money she took from Hive and Malick. So far they've managed to keep it off SHIELD's radar, as well as the radar of any other agency that might want to track down and incarcerate unregistered Inhumans. 

She and Phil also take down the chapter of Watchdogs, although she takes a bullet in her back, close to her right shoulder blade, in the process. She considers it worth it, however, when she finds a list of Inhuman asset numbers and GPS coordinates in the pocket of one of the men. It appears that somehow the Watchdogs have been hacking into SHIELD's supposedly top secret super secure Inhuman registration servers. 

"How do you think they got access?" Phil asks worriedly as he carefully digs the bullet out of her back. She's lying face down on the bed of their Florida motel room while he works, a couple of towels spread underneath her so they don't get blood all over the bedding.

"Through one of those Asset Communication Devices," she says, her words muffled by the pillow she's buried her face in: Phil couldn't get hold of any anaesthetic, so Daisy's having to endure the impromptu surgery with just some Scotch to soften the pain.

"Got it," he gasps, clearly relieved, and she hears a clink as he drops the slug into the empty metal can on the nightstand.

"Thank God," Daisy says, equally relieved. She tries not to whimper as he cleans the wound with antiseptic before he stitches it, then puts a dressing on for her.

"Try not to pull your stitches open," he says, and she grunts an acknowledgement, then rolls onto her left side. He looks down at her, then licks his lips, and she remembers this is the first time he's seen her in nothing but her panties and a pair of leggings. If she wasn't in a lot of pain, and also half-cut from the Scotch, she'd pull his body down over hers and indulge in some stress-busting sex, but she's really in no fit state.

He helps her to sit up, then grabs the t-shirt he'd put ready, and gets her into it, being ultra careful of her wound. "Do you feel like eating something?" he asks.

"Not right now," she tells him. "I just want to sleep." She reaches out and curls her fingers around his left wrist. "Thank you, Phil. Digging that bullet out by myself would've been a tricky proposition."

He winces. "That doesn't bear thinking about," he says with quiet emphasis. 

"No." She settles herself lying on her stomach again, once he's removed the towels, and waits while he clears away the detritus of his surgery.

"Would you rather I slept in the van?" he asks when he returns from the bathroom.

"No. I might have nightmares tonight, so I'll take the risk of you possibly jostling me over sleeping alone and having no one to pull me out of the dreams."

"Okay." He climbs into bed beside her, then disconnects his prosthetic and puts it on the nightstand. He switches out the lamp, then shifts until he's lying on his back, his shoulder and arm touching hers. 

"Goodnight, Daisy."

"Night," she murmurs, and lets sleep pull her under.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

"How many more days do you want me and my team sitting pointlessly in Wisconsin?" May asks Director Mace. It's been 48 hours since they arrived here, and though they've staked out Dr Winslow's vetinary clinic, it's fairly obvious to May, at least, that Daisy's not going to show up. Before now she'd suspected that Daisy's been hacking SHIELD, but now she's certain of it. 

"It seems fairly certain that Agents Johnson and Coulson are the ones who took out that group of Watchdogs in Florida," Simmons puts in, the two of them sitting side by side in Mace's office at the Playground. 

"Eyewitness reports were sketchy," Mace begins, and May rolls her eyes mentally.

"But the manner in which they men were dropped off at the local PD office is very reminiscent of the work of the vigilante known as Quake," Simmons says.

May bites her tongue to stop herself from telling Simmons not to call Daisy that. She doesn't know how her former protégé feels about the name the media has pegged on her, but she can easily recall how much she'd hated her own nickname of 'The Cavalry' after it was given to her following the Bahrain Index mission that went so horribly wrong.

"So can I bring my team home?" May asks, trying to get back to the point.

"Let's give it another 24 hours," Mace suggests, "then, if there's still no sign of her and former Agent Coulson, we'll bring you back in, and we can brainstorm another strategy."

"Very well," May says, and cuts the video conference call. She's pretty certain that this is a colossal waste of time and resources, but she sees no alternative. In all likelihood Daisy and Coulson are already in the wind, so there's not even any point in dragging her team across the country to Florida to look for them.

She sighs heavily, rubs a hand wearily over her face, then heads to the safehouse's kitchen to pass on the news that they'll be here for another 24 hours.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

"We'd better move on," Daisy tells Phil. It's been 36 hours since he dug the bullet out of her and she's feeling recovered enough to do more than sleep and eat. "You'd better drive for the time being, though."

"Okay." He loads the tray with their empty crockery from their room service breakfast, then leaves it outside their room. "Where are we heading?"

"I'm not sure," she admits, swinging her legs around and carefully getting up from the bed. "Finding that list of Inhuman asset numbers of GPS coordinates on that Watchdog is seriously worrying me. I need to find a way into one of the secure Inhuman information servers – find out a way to trace back to whoever hacked the servers. I can't directly hack them – one thing I thought SHIELD was getting right."

"Since you can't hack them, and we know you're the best, how do you think the Watchdogs have hacked them?"

"Either they've got someone who's a better hacker than me – "

"Impossible," Phil says immediately, and she shakes her head, smiling at him, then continues,

"Or they've got their hands on one of the Asset Communication Devices. Which is a frightening prospect."

Phil clasps her shoulders. "We'll work this out, Daisy," he says in a soft voice.

"I know," she says, "but it scares me. What's Mace doing? He's an Inhuman, too, doesn't he care that our people are vulnerable?"

"I don't know what he's doing," Phil says. "I mean, you found out they're planning to go public again, so I'd guess he's prepping for that."

She snorts. "That man's too fond of PR bullshit."

He chuckles softly. "Whereas you think PR is bullshit."

"Too right I do – especially if the PR is seen as more important than the people." She shakes her head, and begins getting dressed, carefully testing her range of movement in her right shoulder where Phil took the bullet out. 

Once they're both dressed and packed, they slip out of the motel quietly, and cross the parking lot to Daisy's van. They settle themselves inside, then Phil pulls out of the parking lot.

"Let's head back to the safehouse in LA," she says. "There's a SHIELD server facility in Santa Barbara, isn't there?"

"There is. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that if we borrowed someone's ID badge, I could clone it and put a fake identity on top of it, then you could slip in and use a flash drive to give me remote access. I'd go in myself, but you know, with the whole 'Quake' thing – " She leaves the sentence hanging, and he nods.

"I know," he says, and flashes her a quick smile.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

Daisy sits in the back of the van for most of their trip back to LA, working on her laptop as she creates a program that will allow her to remotely access the information server. She has to find out how the Watchdogs have hacked the registration list, and fast – any one of the registered Inhumans on the list she took from that downed Watchdog could be their next target. She's not willing to lose any more of her people. 

They decide to sleep in the van rather than book into a motel again on the way back – although they're in funds, Daisy doesn't want to spend money on a room for the entire night when they only plan on catching a few hours sleep. And because she's wound tightly about this whole situation, Phil offers to go down on her before they sleep – an offer she gladly accepts as she's aware that she needs to get herself out of her own head.

After she's gasped and moaned through a second climax, she curls her hand around the back of his neck and tells him, "We need to stop off at a drugstore before we reach the safehouse."

"Mmm?" He hums against her throbbing sex, and she thinks that his mouth is the wickedest mouth she's ever experienced.

"Phil." She squeezes the nape of his neck, and he lifts his head, gazing adoringly at her. "Condoms," she tells him. "We need to get some."

He smirks at her, then fumbles in the pocket of his jeans, and produces a box. 

"When did you buy those?" she asks, surprised. 

"The last time we stopped for gas and food."

"Sneaky," she teases.

"Sensible," he retorts, and waggles the box at her. "Want to do the honours?"

"Get your pants off, then, mister."

He chuckles, tosses her the box of condoms, then gets to his feet and tugs his jeans and boxers off, revealing that he's already fully hard. He kneels down and pulls her jeans the rest of the way off, then he straddles her on his knees. She cups his balls in one hand, then rolls the condom on with her other. 

"Okay?" he asks, and she nods, then spreads her legs a little wider, and he clasps her right thigh with his left hand, while using his right hand to guide his cock into her slick heat.

Daisy can't help moaning as he slides home – he's big enough to stretch her walls as he penetrates her. Then he's buried all the way inside and she wraps her arms around him and kisses him hungrily, tasting herself on his mouth. She tightens her muscles around his dick, and he moans this time, then begins to thrust, shallowly at first, and then deeper and harder as she encourages him.

Afterwards she lies spent and sated, every muscle loose and relaxed, and she can't help wishing they'd done this sooner. Since such wishes are futile, she puts the thought out of her mind again, and instead snuggles against Phil.

"Not really what I had in mind for our first time," he says quietly, and she can't help laughing softly.

"Yeah, but you're super romantic," she says, "so our first time – in your head – probably involved a fancy dinner, and lots of candles, some romantic music playing, and a big bed."

He blushes, which she finds adorable. "I'm way too predictable," he says.

"No you're not," she tells him, and begins brushing butterfly kisses over his face and chin. "Even if you were, what does it matter? I'll take predicable over uncertain any day."

It's lunchtime when they get back to LA, and they stop long enough to unpack their bags, grab a shower and change of clothes, eat some lunch, then head back out to the top security building where SHIELD's offline servers are housed.

They settle in at a local coffee shop, watching the agents coming and going as they get their coffees and pastries, then Daisy murmurs in Phil's ear, "Guy in the green tie."

He nods, then makes his way to the counter, 'accidentally' jostling the man and his female companion, and easily slipping the man's ID badge from the pocket of his pants where he'd had it clipped. He keeps walking, and Daisy sees him go around the corner, then she follows him, catching up with him as he's about to cross the street to the parking lot where they left her van. He slips her the ID badge, and she pockets it as they cross in a properly law-abiding fashion.

Inside her van, Daisy gets to work in making a clone of Agent Edward Jones' ID while Phil changes into the suit he's brought along. He'd suggested wearing the suit to the coffee shop, but she'd vetoed that because changing his clothes after he's palmed the ID means that if Agent Jones realises it was Phil who took the ID, he'll describe a man in a leather jacket and jeans with a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes – and if Phil's wearing a suit when he hands in the borrowed ID at the building's security desk, no one will suspect him. In fact, it's more likely everyone will immediately accept his right to be there.

Daisy hands him the ID, which he puts on a lanyard, before he tucks it into his jacket pocket, then she fixes a discreet tie pin to his tie. "Camera," she tells him, and he nods, then she lifts his prosthetic hand and calls up its virtual control program, and taps that a few times.

"Okay, now I'll have sound and vision the whole time you're in the building," she tells him. "If you're going to run into trouble, I'll send a little pulse through to your index. And when I've got all the data, I'll send a double pulse."

"Show me?" he asks, so she nods and sits back down at her laptop, and taps a couple of keys.

"Oh!" Phil's soft sound of surprise is kinda endearing, she decides. She gets back to her feet, then cups the back of his neck and brings her lips to his. 

"Go get 'em, Phil," she says, and he gives her a quick kiss back, then climbs down out of the van, and heads back to the street, with Agent Jones' ID safely stowed inside his pants pocket.

Daisy listens as Phil tells the agent on the security desk that he'd found Agent Jones' ID on the sidewalk outside. "It might be an idea if someone gave Agent Jones an actual lanyard for his ID," Phil suggests, pulling out his own ID to badge in.

"I'll mention it," the security guy says.

Moments later, Phil's in the elevator, and Daisy sees him select the button for the top floor of the building. He has to badge in to access the room where the servers are located, but no one takes any notice of him, and she sees him head down the central aisle of the room, then step into one of the niches between the banks of servers, before he inserts the flash drive into a USB port. Her program runs as soon as the drive's inserted, so it begins downloading data immediately, then they just have to wait and hope that no one spots Phil before the download's complete – which takes several minutes, as Daisy had warned him it would. Once it's finished, she sends the double pulse to Phil's index finger, and he slips the flash drive out of the server and into his pocket, then turns around and walks calmly out of the server room, then out of the building itself. 

Within a few minutes he's rejoined her in her van, and he immediately shucks off his suit jacket and tie, then he climbs into the driver's seat and heads back to Daisy's safehouse – she's already busy working through the data Phil downloaded for her, and she barely registers the drive back home, nor does she notice when Phil pulls up in the drive – it's only when he puts his hand on her shoulder that she becomes aware of anything outside the stream of data.

"Shall we go inside?" he asks, and she nods, then folds her laptop closed, and follows him out of the van and into the house.

"Why don't I make dinner while you work?" 

She properly focuses her attention on him and sees a familiar fond amusement in his eyes. She puts the laptop down, then wraps her arms around him and kisses him in a very thorough manner.

When she pulls away he gives her a bemused look. "What was that for?"

She smirks. "A reward for a job well done," she tells him. "Thank you."

"I'm always glad to help, Daisy, you know that."

"Mmhmm. Also, you look very sexy in a suit."

"You've seen me in a suit before," he says, and she grins.

"And you've always looked very sexy in a suit." She kisses him again, and can't resist sliding her hand down the front of his pants where his burgeoning erection's beginning to press against his zipper.

"Daisy," he groans and she gives him another kiss. 

"I'm sorry, Phil, I shouldn't tease you, it's not fair when there's work that needs to be done urgently. But I owe you one."

"You don't," he says, rather adamantly. "Don't ever feel you owe me sex or sexual favours for something I've done to help you. That's not the kind of relationship I want." He slips his arms around her. "I don't need sex from you as a reward or an incentive for doing the right thing, okay?"

She nods, feeling a bit floored by his words – she's used to using sex as a reward or an incentive, used to thinking of it more as a tool than a straightforward pleasure. "Thank you, Phil."

He kisses her forehead. "You're welcome." He gives her a squeeze, then lets go. "You've got work to do, and I've got dinner to make, so why don't we get on that?"

"Okay."

He nods, presses a chaste kiss to her lips, then moves towards the kitchen. She swallows, then picks up her laptop again and heads upstairs to the second bedroom that she's been using as her workspace.

When Phil appears a bit later with a tray of food, she says, without looking up, "There's an encrypted third party hijacking the stream of information on the Inhumans."

"The Asset devices send and receive signals," he says, "transmitting details of location, vital signs, etc."

"So much for the new security measures," Daisy says heavily. 

"God, Daisy, I'm so sorry."

She raises her eyebrows at him. "Phil, this isn't your fault. It's the fault of whoever's behind this hack."

"But maybe if I'd remained Director – " he begins, sounding upset.

"No Phil, don't do that – don't second guess yourself. There's no point. Until we know the full details of what's going on, there's absolutely no point in you beating yourself up over this, okay?"

He nods, and she sees him swallow. "Okay."

"But this means that if they can tap into the data directly then they have a lot of information on registered Inhumans." She turns the screen of her laptop towards him. "This is the list of everyone they've got data on. I've warned everyone on this list, but there's no way of knowing how seriously they'll take the warning."

He crouches down beside her chair, to look at the screen, then heaves a sigh. "That's a lot of people."

"Yeah."

"Wait," he says, "I recognise this number." He points at one of the many. "Who is this?"

Daisy taps a couple of keys and a list scrolls through a number of headshots before stopping on one. "James," she says, her tone a little bitter. "He's a total asshole. But he's an Inhuman asshole, so – "

"James," Phil repeats. "Isn't he – " He cuts himself off, looking stricken.

"James is the one who killed Andrew after he'd severed my connection to Hive's Sway," she says. "But he was under the Sway himself at the time."

"Oh." 

"Look, I want to go and talk to him, but you don't have to come with, if you'd prefer not to."

He gives her a surprised look. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, you knew Andrew a lot longer than I did – and in your shoes, I wouldn't necessarily want to speak with the guy who killed one of my friends."

He gets to his feet and rests his hand on her shoulder. "Andrew was your friend, too," he says, "and you're going to talk to him." When she opens her mouth to object, he shakes his head. "No, it's okay, Daisy. I'll come with – you might need backup."

"Okay."

"Besides," he says, "from what I remember of Dr Simmons' reports, withdrawal from Hive's Sway hit him even harder than you – he mightn't be that pleased to see you since you were part of SHIELD, and SHIELD was more or less responsible for blowing up Hive, and severing James' connection."

"Okay." She sighs softly. "I'm not gonna deny I'll be glad to have you along."

"Then it's settled," he says. "Do you want to go and see him this evening?"

"Part of me says yes," she tells him, "but it's a four hour drive, and I think I'd better sleep in a proper bed tonight, then go in the morning when I'm, hopefully, fully rested, and more healed."

Phil nods. "Eat your dinner."

"Where's yours?" she asks.

"Downstairs. I figured you'd be having a working meal."

"Not this time," she says, and picks up the tray. "I'd rather eat with you."

"I'd like that," he says with a happy smile.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

They arrive at the coordinates from the Watchdogs' list just before lunchtime the following day, and Daisy pulls into the parking lot of a fireworks store, her mind boggling.

"This is where James works?" she asks Phil, and he pulls a face.

"Afraid so."

"Well, whoever's running the Terrible Ideas Division is crushing it," she says, and Phil chuckles.

"Yeah, may not be the smartest move SHIELD ever made."

"You think?"

He smiles at her, bumps his shoulder against hers, then gestures for her to lead the way.

They find James inside, talking to a bunch of teenage boys. He looks less than happy to see them, she notices when Phil greets him.

"Hey, go see Shaun, he'll take care of you," James tells the boys, and they move across the store.

"Agent Coulson," he says, and Daisy realises James hasn't caught up with the fact that Phil's no longer working with SHIELD – which might work in their favour. "Surprised to see SHIELD at my doorstep, and with the infamous vigilante in tow. Quake, now, isn't it?"

"I didn't come up with it," Daisy tells him, doing her best to sound pissed off. "But it's growing on me."

"Burning the candle at both ends?" he asks, looking her up and down, and no doubt taking note of the dark shadows under her eyes (she hadn't slept well last night, unfortunately – too many nightmares).

"Speaking of burning – fireworks, really? With your powers – "

He gives a shrug, then gestures at his co-worker. "Shaun over there, long time smoker – 30 years. He gave up last summer, but he keeps a single cigarette on his desk as a constant reminder of what he doesn't wanna be. It's kinda like that."

Daisy wonders if that's true, then decides they don't really have time to get into it right now. "We're just glad to see you're safe," she tells him, and he frowns.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"The recent Watchdog attacks – they're finding their targets by hacking into Asset comms devices," Phil tells him. He nods at the one on James' wrist.

"They can track your location," Daisy says.

"So you think they're after me?" James asks.

"It's only a matter of time," she tells him. "Take it off."

He lifts his arm and rotates his wrist, looking at the device. "I wasn't really a willing participant in this little security measure." He looks up at her. "Mine doesn't come off."

Daisy aims a brief burst of vibrations at it, and it clatters off his wrist and onto the counter. "We have to get you out of here," she tells him.

"Nuh-uh-uh. I'm just trying to live a quiet, normal life."

"You don't understand," she tells him, shaking her head as she moves closer to the counter. "That can't happen any more. The Watchdogs won't let you. They're coming to take that life." 

"What's it worth, anyway?" James asks. "Hmm? I go from my rubbish job to my rubbish apartment. I've got no family. No reason to – You know what that feels like, dontcha?"

Daisy doesn't bother arguing, and Phil chimes in, "SHIELD is here to help you move on."

"Or you can take a stand with me," Daisy tells James. "Fight back. That's how you move on. Take control of your life again."

He sighs, breaking eye contact, then says, "I've got some stuff to finish up, but, um, meet me after closing at the storage place next door. Pod 212, second floor. I've got something that might help."

Daisy nods, and she and Phil head back outside to her van. Once they're inside it, Phil says, "This has got trap written all over it."

"Yep."

"So how do you want to play this?"

"Let's grab some lunch, then go take a look at the storage place," she suggests. "Scout it out."

He nods. "You know SHIELD will send someone down here once they realise James' asset device isn't working."

"Will they?" she asks. 

He winces. "They should," he says, acknowledging her misgivings without trying to defend SHIELD, which she appreciates.

"Well, until they do, I say we treat this as an op that's going into hostile territory."

He nods again. "What do you want me to do?"

She starts up her van, backs it up, then swings it through a 180. "Like I said, lunch first."

"Okay."

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

After lunch, they slip into the storage place, Phil carrying his ICER (which, strictly speaking, he has no business possessing) and Daisy wearing her gauntlets – she's not exactly inconspicuous, but she'd rather be more conspicuous than risk injuring herself by using her powers without the gauntlets – she remembers that month of pain all too well.

"You think James has allowed the local Watchdogs to hack his Asset Device, don't you?" Phil asks as they make their way up to the second floor.

She sighs. "Yeah. Seems the most obvious and logical possibility. You heard him – he sounded pretty bitter to me – and you told me he took it even harder than I did when he was cut off from Hive's Sway." She eases the door from the stairwell open and steps inside, checking for vibrations from other people before beckoning Phil through as well.

"I imagine he's suffering from self-loathing, and has probably decided to take out as many Inhumans as he can before letting them take him out too."

"That's – " Phil begins, then stops and shakes his head. 

 

"Tragic," Daisy says. "James could be a useful ally, but I really doubt he's interested in becoming one."

Phil nods, and they reach the far end of the hallway without encountering anyone else. "Where do you want to put the cameras?" he asks.

"One pointing at the stairwell door, one looking at James' pod door, and one on the pod opposite."

Phil nods, then deploys the little drones. They remind Daisy a bit of the Dwarves Fitz built, but they're not as sophisticated, unfortunately, although they're still fairly versatile since she hacked their software. 

"If James sends anyone to lie in wait for us, we'll know about it," Daisy says, looking down at the tablet she carries, and activating the cameras that she mounted on the three drones. She checks the time on the tablet. "We'd better get back to the van – if I were a Watchdog coming to stake this place out, I'd be here within the next hour."

Phil nods agreement, and follows her back to the ground floor, then outside to where Daisy left her van. 

They climb in and settle down to watch the feed from the drones' cameras on the tablet, talking quietly about what they should do if any Watchdogs turn up – Daisy says the easiest thing is to knock them out, then call the local PD to come and pick them up.

"What do you want to do about James?" Phil asks, rubbing his hand across her back. She suspects he knows how disappointed and angry she'll be if it turns out her suspicion is true and James is in league with the Watchdogs. 

"Give me a minute," she says, and starts tapping away on her laptop while Phil continues to monitor the feed from the cameras.

She snorts. "There's a team just leaving the Playground for here," she tells him. "No doubt coming to investigate the reason for James' Asset comms device going out of action." She types some more. "They won't be here before we meet up with James. I say we take him down and tie him up, then leave him somewhere for the SHIELD team to find – and if we can get a video of him admitting to involvement with the Watchdogs – " 

"If it is him," Phil puts in, and Daisy shrugs. 

"If it's not, I'll eat my fieldsuit."

Phil takes his attention from the tablet long enough to shoot her a grin.

"As I was saying, if we can get a video of him admitting to helping the Watchdogs, we'll leave that on him for SHIELD too – then they can lock him up somewhere." She stifles a yawn, then scrubs her hand over her face.

"Do you want me to go and get us some coffee?" Phil asks.

"Please." She takes the tablet from him, then grabs the back of his neck with her free hand and pulls him in for a quick, hard kiss. "You're the best boyfriend ever."

He makes a pleased sound in the back of his throat, but she's amused to notice he's blushing too. "I'm not a boy," he objects.

She chuckles. "You're my boy, Phil, and don't you forget it."

He shakes his head, leans in to give her an equally fast kiss, then pulls back. "Coffee," he says.

"And pastries if they've got any left at this time of the day."

He nods. "I'll be back as quick as I can."

"Okay."

He slips out of the back door of the van, and Daisy feels his vibrations fading as he heads down the alley where she's parked, and on towards the main street.

He returns just as Daisy spots movement in the hallway of the storage place, and sees half a dozen armed masked men – Watchdogs – arriving, accompanied by James. He unlocks pod 212 and three of the men go inside, then he locks the pod again. He unlocks the one opposite, and the other three Watchdogs go inside that one, but she notices that James doesn't lock that one – which she realises makes sense: he'll unlock pod 212 while they're there, but the one opposite will need to remain unlocked so that the Watchdogs there can reveal themselves simultaneously. 

"How many of them are there?" Phil asks, putting the cup of coffee into her hand.

"Six," she tells him.

He grunts. "Could be worse."

"Yeah," she agrees. "And at least I won't be trying to take them all on alone."

"You could though," he tells her, and she chuckles softly.

"You're biased, Phil," she teases.

"Nope," he says firmly. "Just stating the facts."

She shakes her head slightly, then takes the lid from her coffee and blows on it to cool it down before she takes a cautious sip. "Double latte," she says with a sigh. "My hero."

It's Phil's turn to chuckle this time. "They were out of pastries," he tells her. "But I brought some donuts instead."

"You definitely win the award for Best Boyfriend of the night."

"Dork," he teases, holding out the bag of donuts.

"Pot, kettle," she retorts, and takes the bag from him, then drops it onto her lap before wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and kissing him, open-mouthed and dirty.

"Daisy," he groans.

"Phil," she whispers, and nips at his bottom lip, before pulling back to drink some more coffee. "If we weren't in the middle of a mission, I do believe I'd ravish you."

He flushes, and she feels his arousal spiking through his vibrations, and she really, _really_ wishes they weren't in the middle of a mission.

"Later?" he suggests, and she grins.

"Deal," she agrees.

They drink their coffee and eat their donuts in silence, watching the camera feed, but no one else turns up, and James has disappeared – presumably back to work for the next half hour or so.

DJ-PC-DJ-PC-DJ

The two of them wait silently for James in the hallway outside the designated pod. Daisy considers pinning Phil to the wall and kissing him senseless, but that's only a way to distract herself from what's going to go down shortly. She might not be a SHIELD agent any more, but she's still a professional, so she'll wait until later to kiss Phil senseless.

They've only been there for about ten minutes when she feels James' vibrations approaching up the stairs, and she turns to flick a glance at Phil. He nods to show that he understands they're about to have company.

"What have you got for me?" Daisy asks as James approaches the pod. "We should be on the move soon – those Watchdogs won't hang around before coming after you."

"Well that's a nice 'How do you do'," James says, and Daisy just manages not to roll her eyes. "You're gonna like this. We keep a lot of our raw materials here in storage. Figured some explosives might come in handy."

As he pulls out his keys and goes to unlock the door, Daisy glances back at Phil, who gives her a second nod to let her know he's ready. "That's a start," she tells James. "Could use all the extra firepower right now."

"I've got you covered," James says. "Remember I was lighting fuses long before I was the fuse." 

This time Daisy does roll her eyes, although only because he can't see her face. "Maybe doing some good will make you feel better," she suggests, hoping he can't tell how bitter she feels about his betrayal.

He turns back towards her and gives her a smile. "I think it might." Then he bends and slides the door upwards, at the same time as the door of the pod opposite also slides up, revealing the half dozen Watchdogs she and Phil had seen concealing themselves in the two pods earlier.

"Fight back, right?" James says as the men raise their guns. "Only thing is, the Watchdogs aren't my enemy."

"You gave them access to your watch," Phil says, sounding nearly as bitter as Daisy had felt once she'd realised what James had done. "Let them hijack the signal."

"You son of a bitch," Daisy says. If James knew her at all, he'd have been worried by how calm she sounds. "How could you do this to us?"

"How could you do this to me?" he asks. "You're the one that turned me into this freak of Nature."

"You were obsessed with going through Terrigenesis," Daisy reminds him. "I gave you what you wanted."

"I didn't ask for this. Hive? And bloody misery? If I could take it all back, I would."

"The Watchdogs are destroying Inhumans," Phil says sternly.

"Inhumans are a scourge," James says disdainfully. "The Watchdogs have the right idea, so I struck a deal with them. Help them hunt and kill every Inhuman. We'll be hunted like the animals that we are. And I'm going to be the last one to go."

"You really hate yourself that much?" Daisy asks.

"I don't hate myself. I hate all of us." James takes a step back out of the ring of Watchdogs that surround Daisy and Phil, and Daisy glances across at Phil. He nods and she sees him bend his knees slightly so she punches down at the floor with both hands, using her powers to throw the Watchdogs and James off their feet. Phil fires his ICER, and James stays down, completely taken by surprise.

The Watchdogs quickly begin getting to their feet again, and three charge Daisy at once, but she simply bowls them back down the hallway with her powers, then she takes down a fourth with a well aimed kick to the groin and a follow up blow to the back of the neck. She hears Phil firing behind her and spins around, taking down a fifth Watchdog by blasting him across the hallway in the opposite direction. The sixth Watchdog, shot by Phil, goes down at the same time, leaving the hallway scattered with unconscious men. 

She takes some of the zip ties that Phil holds out to her and proceeds to roll three of the unconscious men onto their backs and restrain their wrists behind their backs, then restrain their ankles as well. She leaves them lying face down, then goes to James and restrains his ankles before she pulls his arms in front of him and restrains his wrists – in this way she and Phil will be able to carry him outside together. 

She grabs the drones, and pockets them, glad that her leather jacket has capacious pockets. "Ready?" she asks Phil, and he comes to join her. He takes James under the arms while she grabs the other man's ankles, and they manhandle him along the hallway, then down the stairs and outside. Once they're outside, they carry him around to the back door of the firework store, and Phil props the unconscious man up against the wall while Daisy unlocks the door with his keys which she'd retrieved after restraining him. They carry him into the store and leave him on the floor in front of the main counter, then Daisy nips back outside to use her laptop to burn the drone's camera footage of James to a CD, which she slips into an envelope and carries inside. She drops the envelope on James' stomach, along with his disabled Asset comms device, then she and Phil clear out.

"Why don't you grab a nap while I drive?" Phil suggests once they're in the back of Daisy's van.

"Yeah," she agrees with a tired sigh.

"I'll get us across the state line, then find a motel where we can spend the rest of the night. And we'll head back home tomorrow."

"Good plan," Daisy says, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle a series of yawns. Phil smiles at her, then carefully takes off her gauntlets, before easing her leather jacket off as well. She sits down on her mattress, and he kneels beside her to take off her boots, and she moans in gratitude, leans in to press a brief, chaste kiss against his mouth, then allows herself to fall back against the pillows.

"Excellent work back there, Miss Johnson," he tells her, leaning down to give her a soft kiss.

"You too, Mr Coulson," she says with a chuckle at his formality.

He smirks, then brushes his thumb along her cheekbone. "Sleep," he says.

"Yeah," she agrees, and closes her eyes. She's asleep before Phil has got the van moving.


End file.
